Scary business

Tonight, I'm putting the finishing touches on guest strip that will be running over at Scary Go Round on Thursday! Believe it or not, this will be the sixth time (1! 2! 3! 4! 5!) I've attempted to fill John's artistic boots. And with each time, I'm not sure if it gets easier or harder! (Looking at some of those early efforts sure is a humbling experience, though!)

Sam Logan

Rock and roll

Notes from the continuity nerds: Fuzzy's problematic memory -- or lack thereof -- was first discussed in this strip.

Penny Arcade's depiction of the Mega Man 9 effect almost perfectly mirrors my own transformation, with one major exception... I'm pretty sure when I was a child, I didn't use the phrase "cheap-ass robot whore" quite as liberally as I do today.

Mega Man 9 is great. It's extremely difficult, sure, but also brilliantly constructed and surprisingly creative. I guess this should come as no surprise, considering it was developed by the same team responsible for the fantastic Megaman ZX Advent. But where 9 distilled, ZX Advent embellished -- one game rolls back the clock to a kind of retro-perfection, while the other thoroughly infuses the old formula with radical new ideas and gorgeous artwork.

They're two completely different approaches, but in both cases the execution was absolutely stellar. And so, 21 years and roughly two-hundred-bajillion games later, old Mega Man is experiencing a bit of an unexpected renaissance! Good news for everyone... or at least, everyone who enjoys being killed by the same freaking lava beam five thousand times.

Sam Logan

Dumm

Did you know: a fine selection of extremely gorgeous cartoons can be found at Dumm Comics, a webcomic collective populated by several super-talented animation vets. Where would we be without the likes of Skadi and Through the Port-Hole brightening our internet experience? Nowhere good, my friend. Nowhere good.

Sam Logan